Nuh (Haryana), Oct 14 (IANS): Slamming the BJP government over the economic slowdown, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday hit out at it for doing nothing to tackle rising unemployment and farmers' distress.
In his first campaign rally for the October 21 Haryana Assembly elections, the former Congress President, speaking in Muslim-dominated Marora in Nuh district, charged Prime Minister Narendra Modi with only working for the corporates, not the common man.
Gandhi said that the Prime Minister has been putting money into the pockets of few selected business groups, and "gave Rs 5.5 lakh crore to his selected 15-20 corporates".
To rejuvenate the economy, the government should put money back into the common man's pocket, he said, praising the party-led UPA government's flagship MNREGA programme for leading to a boom in the economy.
"The economy is in shambles and Modi is talking about the moon," he said.
Raising the issues of unemployment and farmers' distress, he asked the BJP why Maruti shut its factory and why Tata closed its units here, warning that in six months, the economy will reach in such a position that youth will stand up against Modi.
"Modi ji keeps making false claims. So does (Chief Minister Manohar Lal) Khattar ji. They do Mann Ki baat. I thought I will do Kaam Ki Baat. And whatever I say today from this stage, it would be done, go and ask Congress-ruled states in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh," Gandhi said.
"Whatever we say, we do it. I am not here to make false promises. This is Kaam Ki Baat. The Congress party is everyone's party and we believe in uniting people.
"And the BJP is doing what the British were doing in India - dividing people," Gandhi said in his about 20-minute-long speech.
For people of Mewat, one of the most backward regions in Haryana, he promised a railway line from Gurugram to Alwar, a university as well as speedy completion of the Mewat Canal and Kotla irrigation project.
"These are four main issues you have, the list is with me. I give you my word, if we come to power, these will be done. I don't make false promises."
Nuh is the district headquarters in the Mewat area and falls under the Gurgaon parliamentary constituency.
With the promise of loan waiver to farmers and job reservations to women, the Congress, in its manifesto for the state polls, promised 33 per cent job quota for women in the government sector, cash incentives to educated jobless youth apart from farm loan waiver within 24 hours of coming to power.
Besides this, the party promised to bring in a strong legislation to check the menace of mob lynchings, to drastically cut electricity bills and to counter pollution caused by stubble burning by providing machines to remove it from the roots.